The Sun God Nika, a legendary warrior, has always been associated with Luffy and Joy Boy, the two most important characters in One Piece. However, Jewelry Bonney, who unexpectedly took the center stage in the Egghead arc, tapped into a distorted future where she is completely free to attain the Nika form in the story. When this event first happened in the manga, many fans adored this moment and even coined the nickname ‘Joy Girl’ for Bonney’s Nika form. However, not everyone was on board with this idea, as they believed Bonney becoming Nika out of the blue was disrespectful to Luffy’s journey.
Enough time has passed, and the One Piece anime has now adapted Bonney’s Joy Girl moment. While the Bonney Nika controversy resurfaces again, find out why Joy Girl (Nika) form was exactly what Bonney needed in One Piece here.
Spoilers Warning:
This article contains spoilers for Jewelry Bonney’s power-up in One Piece. Proceed with caution.
1. Bonney’s Power-Up Was Properly Built Up Over Time
For a long time, One Piece fans only knew that Bonney’s Devil Fruit power allowed her to switch the ages of other characters (not even herself). Then, Oda revealed that Bonney changed her age to appear like a teenager, and she still had one more ability known as “Distorted Future.” During Kuma’s flashback, kid Bonney was seen utilizing this ability to access a Nika-like future and punched Alpha with a gigantic hand.
Bonney would go on to repeat the Nika-like future once again vs Saturn in Egghead, but it still wasn’t perfect enough. It was only after seeing and interacting with Luffy in his Gear 5 form that Bonney was able to grasp the Nika future. Then, when Luffy encouraged Bonney to become the freest version of herself with her power, Bonney transformed into a Gear 5-like form.
There were clues all along that foreshadowed Bonney would be the next character to attain Nika form after Luffy. The author didn’t do it to portray Bonney as a broken and overpowered character, which we have discussed more about below. Although we knew that these forms were temporary, Oda further addressed the situation, noting that becoming her free self was more exhausting than any other form for Bonney.
2. St. Saturn Got Haunted by His Own Wicked Experiment
Saint Saturn, one of the Five Elders, was the primary person responsible for the tragedy of the Kuma family. He was the one who experimented with Ginny and gave her the Sapphire Scales disease, which led to her death shortly. Then, many fans tend to forget the fact that Saturn also performed his wicked experiments on Bonney when she was an infant. Saturn was the one who gave her the Toshi Toshi no Mi (Age-Age) Devil Fruit powers and the Sapphire Scales disease same as her mother.
So when Kuma was in desperate search for a cure for his daughter, Saturn utilized this opportunity to enslave him and turned him into a soulless cyborg who worked as a lapdog for the World Government. Therefore, because of Saturn’s action, Bonney lost her mom before she could meet her, and she was robbed of the chance of growing up under a loving father and mother.
After seeing her father’s memories in Vegapunk’s lab, Bonney wanted to avenge her father and mother’s loss by taking out Saturn. And Bonney’s key to defeating Saturn has been with her all along. With her Toshi Toshi no Mi, Bonney became the freest version of herself in her Nika form, the very thing the World Government feared the most. In the end, Bonney, along with Luffy, threw the final Nika punch against Saturn for everything he did against her family. Later on, Saturn was killed by his ruler, Imu, for his failures.
3. Bonney Became a Living Manifestation of Her Father’s Dream
It’s evident from Kuma’s backstory that his idol figure has always been Nika. Then Kuma raised Bonney by telling her the tales of Nika, promising he would free her one day. Thus, this prompted her to continue searching for him. As the story unfolded, Luffy, the current embodiment of the Sun God Nika, liberated Bonney, who was imprisoned in her mind by St. Saturn, by motivating her to be the freest version of herself.
Bonney, ever since I was a child, I’ve always wanted to be a hero who could save the downtrodden and suffering. Just like Nika, the Warrior of Liberation – Kuma
Thematically, it made perfect sense for Bonney to transform into the Nika form, not just to stand up against her nightmare but also to knock him down along with her hero. In addition, Kuma, who had always dreamed of becoming Nika, got to see his child become one right alongside his idol and extinguish the threat that haunted his family right before his eyes.
Every father’s dream is to see their children accomplish their goals in life, and after all their hardships, Kuma had a chance to see his child shine bright with his idol’s help. I couldn’t think of any other way to conclude Kuma and Bonney’s storyline better than this in the Egghead arc. Many fans often view this incident from a powerscaling lens and tend to forget the beauty of Bonney being one of the very first people liberated by the modern Nika.
This moment even made Kuma, who had been turned into a mindless cyborg, smile just like the millions of fans around the world when it was first unveiled in the manga. Joy Girl has just made her debut in the One Piece anime, and this time, the fitting power-up will hopefully emotionally connect with the audience. That said, what’s your take on Bonney’s Joy Girl form? Is it a good decision by Oda or not? Let us know in the comments below.
